We just inked United Airlines nonstop from the Eureka-Arcata airport to LAX, so I wanted to share with you the efforts that Fly Humboldt accomplished in recruiting additional air service for our region. I don’t think many of us realize how lucky we are as a small community to have air service. Every few months, another small community loses its last remaining air service provider. Some recent examples include Carlsbad, Chico, Ventura, Oxnard and Red Bluff.

In the past we had been fortunate to have flights that went north to Portland and Seattle, east to Salt Lake City and south to San Francisco and LAX. We had it really good and quite frankly we took flights for granted. While it’s great that we’ve had nonstop service to San Francisco where we can connect with other parts of the world, it’s always nice to have other options. You’ve told us your priority was getting direct flights to Los Angeles and we listened.

However, it’s not as easy as it sounds. What we’ve learned the hard way is that bringing additional air service to a community takes perseverance, patience, positive attitude and financial skin in the game. It’s a very competitive environment, which I was able to see firsthand as I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be a member of the Humboldt County air service recruitment team.

We were one of hundreds of communities competing for the attention of a small number of domestic carriers. What I experienced was akin to “speed dating” for airlines. The airline must first accept your request for a meeting. Then you get 20 minutes to make your pitch on why your community is the best place for them to come and open up a new route. In that 20-minute initial meeting you could either set the hook or poison the well for future air service.

In these instances, a community really needs to stand out. You want to become the first one a carrier thinks of when looking to add a new route. Like real-life dating, first impressions matter. Cultivating relationships makes a big difference as well. People like to do business with people they know and trust. We’ve learned the hard way that not being ready when opportunity knocks at your door isn’t a good thing. One change in the way we did business was to establish a Minimum Revenue Guarantee or “MRG”.

An MRG is a community fund committed to an airline up front, in return for the airline bringing in new routes and flights. In the best case scenario the MRG won’t be used because the seats will be filled with people flying to that destination. We believe that will be the case with flights to LAX as there is proven demand. In a worst case scenario, the MRG makes up the difference in revenue shortfall.

In keeping with the speed dating theme you can look at it like this. In the old days after a courtship period when someone was interested in getting married, the bride generally had a dowry that made her more attractive to her potential future husband. It’s not quite the same, but you get the idea. The MRG makes Humboldt more attractive and gives us a potential edge over our competitors. It also shows that community members support the concept.

And boy, this community stepped up big time! Members of Fly Humboldt sprang into fundraising gear. Without the support of our generous community we would not have been ready to say “yes” to the proposal when it was offered. I personally want to thank all the donors who put skin in the game. I challenged members of the community to close an $84,000 gap and we did it in less than two months. While it took longer to secure additional air service than we would have liked, the fact is we were successful.

Now we need your help. No, we are not asking for any more money. We need to keep those planes full. That means those of you who have become road warriors (driving 10-12 hours round-trip, plus parking, gas, food and hotel) to catch flights at other airports need to start flying out of Humboldt. We need to support our local air service. If we don’t, we could end up like other communities with no options other than driving several hours.

Fourth District Humboldt County Supervisor Virginia Bass can be reached at VBass@co.humboldt.ca.us.